Toby Keith-
“White Trash With Money” (WWW)
(Showdog/Universal)
After a string of wildly amazing
albums, you had to think there would be a letdown somewhere along the road.
I
should, perhaps, qualify myself: “White Trash With Money”, Toby Keith’s first
album released on his new Showdog Records imprint, isn’t all that bad as an
album. It’s still a solid singer-songwriter album with several well-crafted,
interesting and engaging songs. The problem is that Keith- whose work includes
the brilliant “Unleashed”, “Shock ‘N’ Y’All” and, appearing to be his magnum
opus, “Honkytonk U”- has done a lot better.
There
are only a few songs here that are really on par with Keith’s other work. They
include the uproarious “Get Drunk And Be Somebody”, a fun, light-hearted song
about Keith celebrating the fact it’s the weekend because he hates his job and
his boss, a sentiment many are bound to side with; the outlaw-ish “Rolling
Block”, the tongue-in-cheek “Grain of Salt” and the melancholic “Hell No” and “Can’t
Buy You Money”. The rest of the material really only shows flashes of Keith’s
brilliance, which doesn’t produce a terrible album, it just produces an album
that is distinctively “un-Toby-like”.
For
example, there’s “Ain’t No Wrong Way”, which features some pointed comments
about life itself (featuring the album’s best line in “if God Blessed
America/Then how could someone vote/To take prayer out of the classrooms/When
we need prayer the most”), but Keith here sounds exhausted, and the track comes
out flat. The same could also be said of “A Little Too Late” and “Crash Here
Tonight”, which features Keith’s trademark emotiveness but comes with all the
urgency of a snail race. The result is a work that is very rudimentary and
highly indistinctive, producing songs that may be good for other country
artists but for Keith, it’s just not enough.
So,
what’s the final verdict on “White Trash With Money”? Well, it’s cautiously
good- there’s some genuine country and Toby gems here, and there’s quite a few
entertaining tracks which will keep you engaged. However, if you’re looking for
Keith’s best, you’re best looking elsewhere, such as his 2005 masterpiece “Honkytonk
U”, because this album is hardly indicative of what Keith can do best. It’s not
necessarily a disastrous start for Keith and Showdog Records, but it’s not an
optimal one either.
-DG